


Distractions

by Squiddiboo



Category: Splatoon
Genre: M/M, Npacer and eging are mentioned but they're not plot important, idk this idea came to me today and I had to write it, once again up late on ao3 mobile orz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29475750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squiddiboo/pseuds/Squiddiboo
Summary: Prince is not very good at paying attention to what he should be doing. Fortunately, neither is the gardener's son.Set pre-manga. This is honestly just a light fluffy idea that came to me and I had the time to jot it down there and then, for once.
Relationships: Laceless/Prince (Splatoon)
Kudos: 12





	Distractions

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly? This ship is far too cute and deserves more content.

The gardener's son is about my age. I know I'm not supposed to stand near the fence staring at him during practice, and Emperor lightly scolds me for not paying attention, but I can't help but watch him as he replants the flower beds with his father. I don't have many friends my age because I'm always with my brother and his team, and all his friends are older than me. I like them, but we tend to not have a lot in common. Eging gave me a pair of shoes the other week and I don't have the heart to tell him they're a little too small.

The gardener's son leans over the flowerbed. He's wearing a sort of apron, I think, with a pocket on the stomach with a trowel peeking out, and a large pair of gloves, and a simple visor to keep the sun out of his eyes, and to frame his simple topnot style. He's got this pair of boots too: they're large and a smart brown and clunky and perfect for navigating the twists and turns of the gardens with ease, apart from the fact that something must have happened to them, because the fronts of them are completely laceless. 

It doesn't seem to bother him as he zips around with young plants in hand. I wonder if he would be better suited than me to practice dodging with Emperor. He's calling me over again, saying I can talk with the gardener's son after practice. But I know the gardener finishes early on this day of the week. I think I watch them prune the bushes too much. 

The gardener's son runs up to his father and exclaims proudly that he's finished planting all the pink flowers. Emperor walks over to me and shakes his head, and says that a king does not gawk at commoners while they work. I hang my head a little and walk behind him back to the rest of the team. Emperor is instructing me on how to angle my dualies when I attack. He's noted my aim is sometimes a little off to the right because I cross my weapons over wrong, but I'm hardly listening. I can hear the gardener's son giggling over a water sprinkler. It looks fun to dance in its shower.

I should ask Emperor if we could use a sprinkler weapon on the team sometime.

My brother adjusts my aim as my weapon fires and tells me to memorise this position, and practice dodge rolls on the dummies. He then calls out to N-Pacer, and says he wishes to practice playing around her range. She nods, and backs up to a higher vantage point as Emperor walks towards her, painting the floor with his weapon as he moves. Eging is running aiming drills on the dummies further out, and I have a moment to myself. 

Unwatched.

The gardener's son is watering the newly planted beds now. I watch as the sun bounces off the drops from his watering can and sparkles like silver. It almost illuminates his face. He has an intense expression of concentration, but it's hard to take too seriously as he handles the heavy can. He looks about two steps away from sticking his tongue out.

The clicks of my weapon running out of ink brings me back to reality. I look at my dualies, and then the dummies, and then the ink on the floor, and I duck into squid form to refill my ink tank. I hop back up once a few seconds have passed, and catch my usual position reversed: the gardener's son is watching me instead.

"Mister Prince!" he calls out. I feel bad that he knows my name and I don't know his. I offer him a smile and a nod and a wave as I walk over to him.

"Good afternoon," I answer. "The flowers you planted look lovely."

"Ah, thank you!" He smiles and wipes his brow with a handkerchief from his apron's pocket, his cheeks a little flushed from the hard work. Close to the fence like this, I can tell he's a little shorter than me, and his eyes are intense, but kind. "It's all thanks to my father, really. I just do what he says."

"Then he must be an excellent teacher," I respond, "because the ones you plant are always my favourite."

He makes a tiny endearing gasp at that. "You watch me when I'm gardening?"

"Ah, whoops, I guess I'm caught." My face flushes a little to match his, and I find myself smiling nervously. "Yes, sometimes, although I should be practicing. My brother can be a little particular about what I get up to."

"I'm sure you're really really good though, Mister Prince!" he exclaims. He bounces a little on the balls of those laceless boots of his. "I've seen you wipe all those dummies out with ease!"

I find myself smiling even more at that. "You watch me too then, sometimes?"

He lets out a nervous giggle, and goes to cover his mouth, only to remember his hands are still dirty from the soil, resulting in a rather dorky gesture. "Yes, but it's hard not to. You look so cool dodging around the dummies with your coattails flying behind you." I watch him awkwardly fiddle with his apron and lean towards the fence. "Sometimes I get so distracted watching you when I'm fixing the beds I plant the flowers in the wrong place, and I have to dig them back out and start over, but it's worth it to get to watch you." He looks up at me with a smile before quickly adding "And the rest of your team, of course."

"Yes, of course." I gaze back into his eyes and stand there, briefly transfixed in that moment. I briefly remember Emperor might be watching me, and take a step back from the fence I'm almost on top of. When did I walk so close? 

"My brother is the real star though," I continue. "I should get back to him."

"Oh! Yeah, of course! I didn't mean to hold you up." He must have forgotten about the soil on his hands again, because he awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. It's kind of adorable to watch. "I should go too, these flowers won't plant themselves and all that." He nods his head to me with a serious expression, and then waves as he runs off with a "See ya, Mister Prince!" somehow managing to not fall out of those laceless boots of his as hops back along the lawn's stepping stones. 

Emperor is calling me over, but I ignore him, for now, preferring to hang onto the happenings of the garden for just a second longer. He chastises me for goofing off and wasting precious time again.

He shakes his head as I alternate between glancing at him and the flowers just through the fence. "Prince, what were you thinking?"

The gardener's son is kind of cute.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the only fic I'm planning to do where I don't kin any of the characters it's primarily focused on (although I do kin Emperor), and yet it's also the only one I'm planning to write in first person. Ironic, that.


End file.
